202 FISH BERG 



bears good witness to this. But as regards their physical de- 

 velopment the Jewish youth is very slow. While the Slavs 

 among whom they live reach their full growth at 21 to 25 years 

 of age, the Jews do not reach their full height until the age 01 

 30 and even later. Weissenberg, Elkind, Majer and others 

 have shown this to be the case with the Jews in Eastern Europe. 

 From materials collected by the author, to be published in due 

 time, this also appears to be the case with the Jews in the 

 United States. This condition must be considered while speak- 

 ing of their girth. It is a striking fact that wherever data 

 have been collected on conscripts whose age ranges between 

 20 and 2 I years, when they have not yet reached their full de- 

 velopment, the results show that the girth is less than half 

 their body-height. On the other hand all the measurements 

 which were taken on the general Jewish population, including 

 all ages above 2 1 years, show quite different results. Weissen- 

 berg found that the girth of the Jews in South Russia is 53.6 

 percent of their stature; Yakowenko in White-Russia, 52.45 

 percent; Elkind in Poland, 51.57 percent, etc. Our own 

 measurements give a result of 52.2 percent. All this is ex- 

 plained by the age of the persons measured. Those less than 

 22 years are deficient in girth, those above this age are fairly 

 well developed, because, as has been statistically shown by 

 Weissenberg and Elkind, the bodies up to the age of ado- 

 lescence grows very rapidly in length, while the width of the 

 body does not grow correspondingly. After twenty years the 

 growth in width begins to be more active, and continues even 

 after the growth in height has ceased. The girth keeps on in- 

 creasing in size up to the age of forty and even fifty. 



The causes of this tardy development are to be sought for in 

 the social conditions of the Jews. The Jew in Eastern Europe 

 does not enjoy during his childhood any games and outdoor 

 exercises, but is confined the greater part of the day in the 

 " Cheder " (Jewish school), which is always in a deplorable 

 sanitary condition. During adolescence his sedentary habits, 

 indoor, domestic occupations and the absence of physical cul- 

 ture are conspicuous. All this does not contribute much to 



